"Bonkers" is a song by English rapper

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a British MC and rapper. A pioneer of grime music, his work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline, British hip hop, and R&B. Dizze ...

and American producer Armand van Helden. It is the first single released from Rascal's fourth studio album, ''

Tongue n' Cheek ''Tongue n' Cheek'' is the fourth studio album by British rapper Dizzee Rascal. The album was released on 20 September 2009 and includes the number one singles, " Dance wiv Me", " Bonkers", " Holiday" and " Dirtee Disco". It has been certified ...

.'' Rascal released the track under his own record label, Dirtee Stank Recordings on 17 May 2009 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, entering at the top of the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, marking Dizzee's second number-one single, third top-ten single and eleventh top-forty hit on the chart. This was also Van Helden's third number-one single, his first in ten years (with " You Don't Know Me" being his previous number-one single). In October 2011, ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' placed it at number 59 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

Background

Armand van Helden emailed Dizzee the music while he was living in the US. Dizzee instantly realised it had potential to be a festival anthem, and wrote the lyrics to it with that in mind, which he claims took him 25 minutes. The record was selected as Jo Whiley's Pet Sound and Sara Cox's 'Weekend Anthem'. Rascal said in an interview with '' The Sun'' newspaper that he is unashamed of the song's pop hooks, and, despite initially having a strong dislike for

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

, he has enjoyed making the song. On 5 May 2009,

The King Blues The King Blues are a British punk rock band from London credited for fusing punk and hip hop together with influences from ska and spoken word. Tariq Ali described the band's sounds as "rough, radical music that should unsettle the rulers of t ...

chose "Bonkers" as their cover when they were in the

Live Lounge The Live Lounge is a segment on the British radio stations BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra. It was originally hosted by Simon Mayo, and later by Jo Whiley on her weekday mid-morning, and later weekend lunchtime radio shows, then by Fearne Cotton ...

with

Jo Whiley Johanne Whiley-Morton (born 4 July 1965), better known by her professional name Jo Whiley, is an English radio DJ and television presenter. She was the host of the long-running weekday later weekend '' Jo Whiley Show'' on BBC Radio 1. She curre ...

. Rascal performed the song live during the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics as part of a montage of British pop music.

Usage in media

The song appeared on the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

and

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

video game '' Need for Speed: Nitro'', which takes place in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, and

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

for the Wii version, as well as in '' Need For Speed: Most Wanted''. The song appeared in the film '' Kingsman: The Secret Service''. A parody of the song, retitled "Minted", was used in the ''

Horrible Histories ''Horrible Histories'' is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more. In 2013, Lisa Edwards, UK publishing and commercial director of Scholastic Corpora ...

'' sketch about the wealthiest man in ancient Rome,

Marcus Licinius Crassus Marcus Licinius Crassus (; 115 – 53 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome." Wallechinsky, David & Wallace, I ...

. The lead vocals were performed by

Simon Farnaby Simon Farnaby (born 2 April 1973) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is a member of the British Horrible Histories troupe in which he starred in the television series ''Horrible Histories'', ''Yonderland'' and ''Ghosts''. He has writte ...

. "Bonkers" was used as the track behind the season three trailer for ''

Rick and Morty {{Infobox television , image = Rick and Morty title card (cropped).png , alt = , caption = , genre = {{Plainlist, * Animated sitcom * Adult animation * Science fiction * Black comedy * ...

''.

Music video

There is a music video for the song that shows Dizzee Rascal on an inflatable pickup.

Track listings

*CD single / 12" vinyl #"Bonkers" – 3:01 #"Bonkers" – 3:24 #"Bonkers" – 4:29 #"Bonkers" – 5:21 #"Bonkers" – 5:30 #"Bonkers" – 5:53 #"Butterfly" – 3:53 *Digital download #"Bonkers" – 3:01 #"Bonkers" – 3:24 #"Bonkers" – 4:29 #"Bonkers" – 5:21 #"Bonkers" – 5:30 #"Bonkers" – 5:53 #"Butterfly" – 3:53 #"Bonkers" – 2:56 *Bonkers (Remixes) – single #"Bonkers (As Heard on Radio

Soulwax Soulwax are an electronic band from Ghent, Belgium. Centred around brothers David and Stephen Dewaele, other current members include Igor Cavalera and Stefaan Van Leuven. They were first noticed after the release of their album ''Much Against Eve ...

Edit)" – 3:45 (Only available in Belgium and The Netherlands) #"Bonkers (Doorly Remix)" – 4:30

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

Listen to "Bonkers"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonkers 2009 singles Dizzee Rascal songs UK Singles Chart number-one singles Songs written by Armand Van Helden 2009 songs Songs written by Dizzee Rascal